4.2　考研真题与典型题详解

I. Fill in the blanks.

1．The fifteenth century has been traditionally described as the barren age in English literature. But it is the spring tide of English ______.

【答案】ballads

【解析】15世纪英国歌谣开始兴起。

2．The ______ is an important stream of the British literature in the 15th century.

【答案】popular ballad

【解析】大众民谣是英国15世纪重要的文学潮流。

3．William Langland’s ______ is written in the form of a dream vision.

【答案】Piers the Plowman

【解析】朗格兰的《农夫皮尔斯》通过一系列的梦境对当时英国社会进行了形象的描述。

II. Explain the following term.

Ballad (Popular ballad) （厦门大学2008研；国际关系学院2007研）

Key: ①a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct way and dramatic manner some popular stories usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply, impersonally, and often with vivid dialogues. ②Ballads are normally composed in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming. But some ballads are in couplet form, and some others have six-line stanzas. ③Appearing in many parts of Europe in the late Middle Ages, ballads flourished particularly strongly in Scotland from the 15th century onward. Since the 18th century, educated poets outside the folk-song tradition--notably Coleridge and Goethe--have written imitations of the popular ballad’s form and style: Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is a celebrated example.

III. Short answer question

What are the artistic features of Piers the Plowman?

Key: Artistic features of Piers the Plowman:

(1) Piers the Plowman is written in the form of a dream vision.

(2) The poem is an allegory which relates truth through symbolism.

(3) The poem is a satire on the corruption prevailing among the ruling classes, ecclesiastical and secular.

(4) Alliteration is notable in this poem.

IV. Essay questions

1．State the social significance of William Langland’s Piers the Plowman.

Key: (1) Piers the Plowman remains a classic in popular literature. It was very popular throughout the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries. It praises the poor peasants, and condemns and exposes the sins of the oppressors. It played an important part in arousing the revolutionary sentiment on the eve of the Rising of 1381 headed by Wat Tyler and John Ball.

(2) It is a realistic picture of medieval England. But Piers is not a representative of the poor peasants. He is one of the well-to-do peasants. He has no intention of upsetting the feudal order of society, and he accepts the existing social relations. This is the limitation of the poem.

2．What is the most important department of English folk literature? And make comments on its most famous cycle: the Robin Hood Ballads.

Key: (1) The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. A ballad is a story told in song, usually in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming. When it was chanted by ball-assigners, the audience joined in a refrain which usually followed each stanza. They are mainly the literature of the peasants, and in them one is able to understand the outlook of the English common people in feudal society.

The subject of ballads are various in kind, such as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters of class struggle.

(2) The most famous cycle of English ballads centers on the stories about a legendary outlaw called Robin Hood. Robin Hood, a legendary popular hero, is depicted in the ballads as a valiant outlaw, famous in archery, living under the greenwood tree with his merry men, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, waging war against bishops and archbishops, and constantly hunted by the sheriffs, whom he constantly outwits.

Clearly the historical origin of Robin Hood and his band of outlaws is to be found in the perpetual struggles of the peasants against the landlords, against the local officials and against the king’s judges. Robin Hood is a partly historical and partly legendary character.

The character of Robin Hood is many-sided. Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same time tender-hearted and affectionate. But the dominant key in his character is his hatred for the cruel oppressors and his love for the poor and downtrodden. Robin Hood appears to be devout and orthodox in religion. Another feature of Robin’s view is his reverence for the king. The king appears in the ballads as an intermediary between the outlaws and his officials and judges, as the humorous and understanding guest in the greenwood, feasting on his own stolen deer. In spite of this, the Robin Hood ballads show the fighting spirit, indomitable courage and revolutionary energy of the English peasantry.

（此题分两部分作答，第一部分主要分析什么是歌谣以及歌谣的写作主题；第二部分主要分析Robin Hood Ballads的主要内容，主题和Robin Hood的形象。）